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NORTH AUGUSTA — Advance Auto Parts has put down $4 million to purchase the old Lidl grocery store in North Augusta.

Lidl opened at 417 East Martintown Road in 2017 and closed its doors six years later, in July of 2023.

Property records show that Roanoke, Va.-based Advance Stores Company Incorporated bought the property in December for $4.05 million.

A spokesperson for the company confirmed for Post and Courier that this North Augusta location will be one of Advance Auto Parts’ new “Market Hubs,” these larger stores offering three to four times the inventory selection as its typical stores.

"The new location will enable the store to stock a large selection of parts to better serve DIY and Pro customers, as well as other nearby Advance locations,” the company spokesperson said. “Additionally, the new location will deliver an improved customer experience as it offers good visibility, access and parking.”

According to a news release from Advance Auto Parts, the new North Augusta location “will carry a wide selection of automotive parts and accessories, including batteries, brakes, filters, fluids and tools.”

Free services will also be offered here, including “wiper blade installation, battery testing and installation, battery and oil recycling, check engine light scanning, loaner tools and starter and alternator testing.”

Advance Auto Parts, based in Raleigh, announced last March that it had completed the store closure phase in “optimizing” its retail footprint nationwide and would be embarking on the next phase, this of store openings.

North Augusta’s future Market Hub store is one of 10-15 hubs that Advance is looking to open this year in addition to 40-45 of its regular stores. This represents an ongoing effort to open more than 100 distribution points through 2027.

Advance Auto already has a presence in North Augusta with two smaller stores, one in the Exit 5 area and one near the junction of Old Edgefield and East Martintown roads.

NORTH AUGUSTA — In North Augusta’s ongoing effort to manage growth and development, the city is now creating a standard for annexations, namely annexations vis-à-vis dwindling wastewater capacity.

That standard is one of give a little to get a little, and it builds on a general attitude toward annexation in North Augusta that began to shift about five years ago when the city updated its Comprehensive Plan, the document that serves as framework for policy decisions.

Annexation into North Augusta has always been a voluntary process, initiated by property owners who butt up against the boundary line. But the pace of growth measured against what the city can bear led to a need for prioritizing which annexation requests might be accepted, and that prioritization made its way into the Comp Plan as a legally non-binding but officially adopted foundational piece.

The city now is creating actual policy from that foundation.

On March 9, consensus came down from North Augusta City Council that annexation would have to either fill a donut hole of unincorporated county land surrounded by the city proper; or, if on the outskirts, that annexation request would have to be tied to commercial development, not residential.

Council hasn’t formalized the policy yet — such a resolution or ordinance hasn’t come to the dais — but the decision was made among all members of the council that this is how North Augusta should walk the line in balancing future development with the little sewer capacity it has left to give.

That issue of sewer capacity is what brought the annexation question to a head.

Not just North Augusta, but others who also utilize the regional Horse Creek wastewater treatment plant, are reaching their limits on how much future development they can take on for sheer inability to service it with wastewater treatment.

Officials across the board, whether with North Augusta, Aiken or Aiken County, emphasize there is no crisis, that all existing development and all future development approved to date is fully accommodated by the treatment plant.

It’s future development beyond all of this that’s pinched.

The Horse Creek facility is undergoing a now $70 million expansion that will bring its total capacity up from 20 million gallons per day to 26 million gallons per day, a 30% increase.

The city of Aiken last summer authorized $16.3 million to get hold of 1.5 million gallons per day from that expansion.

North Augusta has not authorized a similar purchase of wastewater capacity, and neither the city’s administrative leadership nor the elected council indicated that it would in near future.

Councilman Kevin Tool said he was opposed to the idea particularly if capacity were bought to support properties still outside the city limits and particularly, too, if it meant bonding out for it.

North Augusta’s existing ordinance on providing water and sewer service to properties outside its limits is one that requires these properties come into the city as a condition of receiving that service. This happens either immediately, if the property is contiguous to the city, or at some future date when it does become contiguous, that arrangement bound by a signed agreement.

The ordinance ensures that if North Augusta is providing the service, it not only collects on utility fees but also reaps the benefit of property tax revenues.

Now, North Augusta is positioned to up the ante on what it gets for every gallon it gives.

Beyond existing development and beyond development already on the books, North Augusta has enough unallocated, uncommitted sewer capacity at the Horse Creek treatment plant to service another 2,600 to 3,900 homes.

North Augusta Public Services Director James Sutton had advised the city’s planning commission in October that the city had just 713,000 gallons per day left to give new development beyond what the commission had seen up to that point, which includes almost 9,000 homes in varying states of development.

Updated figures given this month suggest North Augusta has a little more than that, some 1.07 million gallons per day of uncommitted sewer capacity.

“It’s close; you could burn that capacity out real quick,” Planning Director Tommy Paradise said.

South Carolina Department of Environmental Services issues permits based on an industry standard of each single-family home requiring 275 million gallons per day of sewer.

Sutton’s own estimate from last October was that North Augusta might not be able to approve new construction by this October should the rate of development keep pace with recent years.

Additionally, he’d said, it’s unlikely North Augusta could support a largescale industrial development with its remaining capacity.

But that’s the kind of development that pays, the kind that gives a city a return on its investment.

Aiken County has already lost out on an economic development project in part due to the city of Aiken’s inability to service it with wastewater. House of Raeford in 2024 was set to invest $185 million in building a chicken processing plant in Aiken County, a project that was to have been serviced for wastewater treatment by the city of Aiken—except that the project would have needed four to five times the sewer capacity that Aiken had left to give.

North Augusta City Council on March 9 showed itself amenable to eventually codifying a three-part policy that clearly defines where the city stands on annexation requests while simultaneously wielding what small amount of unallocated sewer capacity it has left as incentive for business development.

First, North Augusta will take care of what it has. The city is able to service all existing development and all development in the pipeline, even that which has not yet materialized on the ground and that might take a decade or more to materialize. Additionally, redevelopment of existing buildings, even if that redevelopment increases the property’s wastewater needs, should be ensured continued service, the council agreed.

Second, annexations of donut holes—the bits of county land surrounded by land already within the city of North Augusta—would likely be accepted. These areas are, for the most part, small in acreage and unlikely to demand as much from wastewater.

Moreover, annexation of a donut hole lessens the burdens placed on Public Safety and Code Enforcement.

Legally part of Aiken County, North Augusta’s donut holes fall under the jurisdiction of Aiken County Sheriff’s Office and Aiken County Code Enforcement even when it would often be most convenient for North Augusta’s own agencies to respond.

Finally, the distinction between residential annexation and commercial annexation, preferencing the latter for its higher ROI: fewer resources are used, jobs are created and both property taxes and business licensing fees are collected.

“This would allow, in a voluntary way—not a compulsory way—for people to enter the city if they’re in the donut holes and operate at that rate,” Clifford said of the proposed outline of the annexation policy. “They’d still have to pay the tap fees, they’d still have to do the things that everybody else has to do to come into the city; but at the same time, they’re not going to have to go out and buy capacity from the county.”

When North Augusta purchased its 8.6 million gallons-per-day capacity at the treatment plant back in the 1980s, it did so at just 49 cents a gallon.

The new rate for purchasing capacity, which took effect in September 2024, is $10.89 a gallon, a rate that Aiken County says is just to break even on operations at the treatment facility. It’s also one that actually places Aiken County about even with other jurisdictions in South Carolina: a consultant’s survey, commissioned to support financing of the Horse Creek expansion, found the average rate across the 15 jurisdictions surveyed is about $9.92 a gallon.

The policy that North Augusta is pursuing is one that would make the barrier to entry for new out-of-city residential development very high while also presenting a steep discount to new commercial development that’s similarly positioned.

Because in abiding by it, commercial development would get a chunk of North Augusta’s unallocated wastewater capacity, paying only the tap fees and in-city rates for service.

Meanwhile, for a developer to have an out-of-city residential project hooked up to city service and, consequently, be annexed into North Augusta, “It’s a high cost. The cost of buying additional sewer capacity,” Administrator Clifford said.

By the current rate, that’s a cost of nearly $2 million for a 400-home subdivision.

COLUMBIA — The Aiken Standard and Post and Courier North Augusta/The Star won a combined 20 awards March 6 in the 2025 South Carolina Press Association News Contest.

"It's gratifying to see the hard work of our folks pay off with this recognition," said John Boyette, executive editor of the Aiken Standard and Post and Courier North Augusta/The Star. "I'm proud of the work we do and how we continue to be a voice for Aiken County."

The Aiken Standard newsroom won 12 awards, including first place in general excellence/print for midsize daily papers.

Former sports editor Kyle Dawson received six individual awards: first, second and third place in spot sports story, first place in humorous photo and second and third place in sports feature photo.

Dawson, sports writer Taylor Beltz and page designer Lauren Haley received first place for sports section or magazine for the Aiken Standard's 2025 football preview.

Beltz won first place in the midsize and small weekly newspapers for pictorial.

Boyette received three awards: first place in sports feature, first place in sports column writing and third place in short story. His sports feature, about the 1975 Masters Tournament, also was designated a "Best of the Best" winner.

Reporter Carl Dawson received a third-place award for reporting-in-depth.

The Post and Courier North Augusta/The Star brought home eight awards.

Senior reporter Elizabeth Hustad won five awards in the category for small weekly newspapers: second place in health beat reporting, second place in enterprise reporting, second in government beat reporting, second in growth and development beat reporting and third in business beat reporting.

Community reporter Bianca Moorman won two awards in the category for small weekly newspapers: first place in arts and entertainment writing and second place in food writing.

COLUMBIA — The North Augusta boys’ basketball team will not be denied again.

The Jackets made history on March 7 against South Pointe to bring home their first-ever Class AAAA State Championship. And just like the regular season, it wasn’t an easy road for them in a game that needed two overtimes to decide a victor. The Jackets came out on top with a 64-56 win.

And for the players who have worked throughout the season for this moment and overcome adversity at every juncture, this win means more than anything.

“It means the world to me,” said senior Toian Nabriat. “It’s the first in school history. I’m glad I’m a part of the team who could be first. And it just means the world to me. I gave everything I had. My team, I know they gave it everything they had. We really earned it. Like all the practices, all the games, all the bumps and bruises, at the end of the day it was all worth it.”

And through it all, it was the passing of former teammate Cam’ron Hallingquest that redefined the entire season for North Augusta. All of a sudden, each win in the playoffs wasn’t just to keep the season going; it was to honor him and his memory.

“We lost a great kid a few weeks ago,” said head coach Tony Harrell. “And his spirit has been with us since we lost him. And the team rallied around it. The community rallied around it, and it's just a great feeling right now.”

It was a tight opening period for both teams before North Augusta started to pick up steam. After building up a solid lead midway through the second, the Stallions turned the tables with a handful of clutch plays to tie it at halftime. They outscored the Jackets 13-5 in the second period level the playing ground going into the second half.

Although the Jackets are no strangers to these close games, Head Coach Harrell said it was those experiences throughout the season that helped them maneuver South Pointe.

“It was everything for our season,” he said. “I mean, we've played one of the toughest schedules of any 4A team in South Carolina. So, we got battle-tested all year. There's teams that won state championships already, there's teams in Georgia that are in the Final Four still playing that we played this year. So, we knew coming in that they were a really, really good team, but we also knew that we played some really good teams, so we just had to stay connected, stay focused, stay disciplined and fight all the way to the end. And we did that tonight.”

The second half was no different as each team struggled to gain any momentum, but throughout the third and fourth quarters, neither could take control of things on the court. While North Augusta outscored the Stallions in the third, they turned the tide again in the fourth.

With the lead changing almost every play in the final minutes, every point mattered and any mistakes could cost them the season and a state title. It was in that moment that the Jackets capitalized on each free throw to tie the game, and it was their aggressive defense that sent it into the first overtime.

Blocking balls at the net and forcing turnovers are what turned the game around for them late as the Stallions looked poised to take over the momentum with a lead on the scoreboard. It continued to be close in the first overtime as South Pointe looked to come out with some scoring early but they fought back yet again to force another overtime period.

That was when North Augusta called game.

An explosive four minutes from the Jackets sealed the deal as they made one final push to end things in their favor. They outscored South Pointe 11-3 in that final overtime by doing what they do best, sharing the ball, taking time in choosing the best opportunities to score and capitalizing on every one.

It paid off as the clock hit all zeros, sending the crowd into a frenzy of cheers as the team rushed onto the court.

Harrell said what he felt the most in the final seconds was relief. After years of getting close and not quite making it over the hump, the Jackets had finally broken through.

“I was a rollercoaster there in the fourth and in both the overtimes,” he said. “But to finally look up and up six and we got that steal and came down and dunked it, and I finally knew then. Hey, we finally won the game. Just a relief. As a head coach, our vision is always to win a state championship. It's been a long time coming and it feels so good. We want to do this again sometime.”

It was an emotional win to cap off an emotional playoff run for North Augusta. The boys will join the girls as State Champions, as both teams swept their second dual state final appearance. After finishing the season as region runner-up and coming through several close calls during the postseason, the Jackets are the last ones standing.

For senior Jordan Rouse, who grew up watching North Augusta basketball, this is all the accumulation of the hard work he’s been putting in since joining the team five years ago, and sharing the moment with the girls’ team is the cherry on top.

“It's amazing, man,” he said. “I've been with this program, I've been watching the games since I was at elementary school, coming to the games, shooting on the court at halftime. Coach Harrell was always the coach, and I promised him a ring in my eighth-grade year when I got in the program.”

NORTH AUGUSTA — The wait is finally over for the North Augusta baseball and softball programs.

After a decade of planning and anticipation, the brand-new Jacket Park was unveiled Feb. 13 with a ribbon-cutting before softball’s intrasquad scrimmage. It includes not only new baseball and softball fields, but also new facilities for both teams to use, including practice areas.

And on top of all of that, it’s located just across the street from the school itself.

“It's huge,” head baseball coach Kevin Lynn said. “And it's just something we've never had that we've always looked forward to. We've always talked about it, but now we have our own. So, everybody's excited. We've been over here practicing every day since January.

"So just to have our own field where we don't have to travel across town to go practice, and hope that no one else has been on our field before us. And so just having our own is really big. And I know everybody's excited.”

Principal Casey Rogers cut the ribbon alongside varsity baseball and softball players while members of the community took in the park for the first time.

Riverview Park has been the home of Jacket baseball and softball for decades, through thick and thin. The on-campus facilities have faced setbacks over the years that have delayed its completion, including Tropical Storm Helene, which pushed back its opening by an entire season.

The moment is even more special for the head coaches since they remember growing up in the area and playing themselves at Riverview Park with stories of one day having facilities like these.

“It's almost surreal,” head softball coach Lindsey Jones said. “I played here, and with it being talked about back then, it still gave you something to play for, but to be back here now as a coach and to see the girls that are getting a chance to play on a new field on their campus with their name, Jacket Park, written on it. It's a whole different meaning when it comes to coming out here and fighting for their teammates.”

And it’s that sense of ownership that has made the biggest difference for both teams. At Riverview Park, the fields they used were also used by other teams around the area, and while the signs called it their home, it never really felt like theirs.

It’s even changed how the Jackets practice every day. Before, the teams would have to wait until 5 p.m. so players could get out of school and get down to Riverview, but now, with the fields being a walk away, both can schedule practices for earlier in the day.

“Just finally having something that's ours,” Lynn said. “Something that we can call our home that nobody else gets to use. It's strictly for our baseball players. And they love it. They come here every day. They're excited. I got a great group anyway, but just having our own and knowing that it's right here on campus. And they take a lot of pride in it. I know they enjoy every bit of it. They're soaking it all in. I know that.”

With the new fields and all that comes with them, come new responsibilities for players as well, to keep the facilities nice for all the teams that will come after them. But for them, the extra work is exciting too as they settle into their new environment.

“You can see the pride they have for it,” Jones said. “You can see that they come excited to practice. It is the first time that we've had jobs for the girls, and they're excited to even do those because they know that we want to maintain a good ball field. And to do that, you’ve got to work even harder, and they're all willing to do that.”

Both teams’ seasons will be kicking off within the next few weeks with non-region matchups at home and on the road.

Softball will be the first team to host at Jacket Park, first with a scrimmage against Silver Bluff on Feb.19, then against Strom Thurmond on March 11 in its first official home game of the season. The Jackets open up region play on the road but will return home to face South Aiken on March 16.

“You think about all the players that went through our program that didn't get this chance,” Jones said. “But they still fought for the community and played for the community, and it's finally happening. So, I'm excited for the girls now just to get that chance to feel that pride and joy behind, not just their school, but the community that fought for them to get this as well.”

Baseball will host its first official game at Jacket Park on March 14 against Harlem and will open up region play at home two days later against Gilbert.

Lynn said there are still moments he can’t believe these facilities are finally here and ready for everyone in the North Augusta community to enjoy.

“This is great,” he said. “This is awesome. I mean, I live right up the street. So, when I'm riding by here, and just sometimes still can't believe we finally got it. But it's everything that it's been cracked up to be so far, it's been awesome.”